Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of interactions with virtual reality systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a moving floor device and system thereof for users to interact with virtual reality environments and systems using user-applied movements on the surface of the device.
Description of the Related Art
Over last few decades, technologies used for interacting with a virtual environment have made significant progress. Especially in the video game industry, companies have released numerous newly designed control systems to enhance the interaction between the users and the virtual environment presented in the video games. For example, NINTENDO implemented a user interface system based on a pointing device for the company's game console WII. This system relies on camera coupled with the pointing device and a beacon to estimate the velocity and trajectory for the motions of the pointing device. The game console then processes the estimated parameters of these motions and reflects them in the picture of the video game. However, the accuracy of this system is very limited, especially for the depth of the motion (distance between the pointing device and the beacon) as all the calculation and estimation of the motions are based on camera captured images. It would be difficult using this system to accurately simulate the distance and velocity of running, crawling, walking, etc. Moreover, the range of the motion (i.e., running or walking distance) for this system is limited to the range of the camera and the dimension of the room where the game console is placed, making it impossible to interact with virtual reality environments that involve long distance running, walking or crawling.
MICROSOFT later on released the KINECT system, which is based on a visual target tracking system. The system eliminated the hand held device and solely relies on a camera and a signal emitter to track the changes of the user's image. This technology significantly improved the accuracy of simulating the depth of the motions. It also enables the system to simulate the subtle movements of a user's whole body. However, the KINECT system did not eliminate the motion range limitation enforced by the coverage range of the camera or the dimension of the room. SONY's PLAYSTATION 4 camera simply enhanced the accuracy of the KINECT system by using dual cameras and further reduced the calculation load of the system. It did not provide any solution to simulate long distance running, walking or crawling.
Recently, more advanced iterations of virtual reality devices have become available to the general public. Among all these virtual reality devices, the OCCULUS RIFT Virtual Reality (VR) Glasses are one of the most prominent in the market. OCCULUS was the first company to make effective virtual reality glasses and mesh it commercially with games like BATTLEFIELD 4, and CALL OF DUTY. Other virtual reality glasses from SAMSUNG, MICROSOFT, and SONY have been developed. However, none of the control/interaction systems discussed above are able to fully take advantage of the walking, running, jumping, and other fluid movement interaction with virtual reality environment.
VIRTUIX (Houston, Tex.) has recently developed one of the first “moving floor”, called the VIRTUIX OMNI but the design of VIRTUIX is hindered in several ways. Firstly, the user has a waistband that holds them in place and they in turn walk on the bowl-shaped floor with a sensor laden “waistband” that holds the user centered and detects velocity by sensing pressure on the inside of the waistband. Overall, the user experience of VIRTUIX OMNI could be fairly uncomfortable and far from natural walking experience due to special shoes, a “sensor/restraining waistband”, and a bowl-shaped walking area. This is the opposite of the device in the present invention, in which the floor moves to keep the user centered. It provides a far superior, natural, and intuitive user experience that does not require low friction footwear that allows the feet to slip across the surface, be held in place by a waistband, or require the user to walk in a “bowl”.
Thus, there is a recognized need for a device for interacting with a virtual reality environment, which is able to accurately simulate users' moving distance in every direction and does not limit the user's moving range. Particularly, the prior art is deficient in these aspects. The present invention fulfills this longstanding need and desire in the art.